Electro-chemical fuel cells are not new. Invented in 1839 by William Robert Grove, electro-chemical fuel cells have recently been the subject of extensive development. As environmental concerns mount and energy legislation toughens, development of “green” energy sources becomes more justified as a course of action, if not required.
Within the last decade, development has addressed various types of fuel cells designed to address various applications and corresponding power levels, ranging from large stationary power plants (kilowatts to megawatts), to transportation (bus, automobile, scooter), and to smaller electronic devices (laptops, cell phones, PDAs).
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,312,846 and 6,815,110, Marsh describes an approach to Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells fabricated on a semiconductor substrate. Using conventional semiconductor fabrication methods, such fuel cells can be made extremely small, in very great quantity, and at very low cost on a single substrate.